Things I’ve learned at Fan Expo’s Fan Appreciation Comic Con

I had a pretty eventful time at Hobby Star’s FanApp even if I was hanging out at the ComicBookDaily booth (thanks to everyone who dropped by and said Hello!) and basically just bumming around.

I got to talk with Geof Darrow for a while (more on that later) met Bob McLeod and got to talk to him for a while. Saw the hardest working guys in Comics (The Kill Shakespeare crew) as they hustled and basically continued their universal dominance of the Canadian comic book scene. Our booth was right behind Khoi Pham’s table, and went through a few of his pages and stared at his pencils, which are just insanely tight. (I Was A Hero’s Ryan O’Reilly actually bought a page from Chaos War that was damn well Quitelyian in its composure and execution. Really beautiful stuff.

But of course you’re not here for my meanderings, you want some gossip!

• Geof Darrow has a kind of quiet, ‘aw-shucks’ way about him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very forceful personality, but there’s something very disarming about the way he’s dismissive of his work. When I asked him about his relationship with the Wachowski’s and the future of Shaolin Cowboy, he didn’t seem to into it. I know from Brent’s interview with Andrew Vacchss that there are plans for a Shaolin Cowboy prose novel, and he described it as being laid out as a pulp magazine, complete with spot illustrations.
• Chris Sprouse and Leonard Kirk have some of the best prices for original art I’ve ever seen. I managed to pick up a Ocean page off of Mr. Sprouse for Forty dollars and felt kind of bad about it. I’ll definitely be grabbing a few Captain Britain and the MI-13 pages off him next time I see him.
• Our very own Brent Chittenden got to moderate a panel with Mr. Darrow and Mr. Bob McLeod and the two lived up to their reputations as some of the best storytellers in the industry. Brent will probably expound on this in his column this Thursday, but needless to say that between the two of them is a lot of comic book history and nothing seemed to be off the table.
• Ethan Van Scriver is one funny gentlemen. He moderated a pretty awesome sketch duel between Chris Sprouse and Patrick Gleason, during which he entertained the audience with stories he’s collected about Rob Liefeld. Really great stuff – maybe not enough to reprint – but hilarious stories none-the-less.
• Bob McLeod is hands down the nicest guy in comics. Very straight forward. Totally family guy. He told me some great stories about his time at Neal Adams’ Continuity Studios. He’s actually going to be inking some of Neal’s son Josh’s artwork for an upcoming comic. He said it felt like coming full-circle as it was Neal who had actually given him his first big break.
• One of the biggest things for me is that Toronto’s very own Silver Snail is moving from their prime real-estate on Queen St. to The Annex.. which is already the home to two very good comic book shops (The Beguiling & The Labyrinth). I don’t really know how I feel about it. I’m sure I’ll make my feelings known later on this subject.
• Oh and one last thing: anyone know where I can get my hands on City of Fire by Geof Darrow and Moebius? Let me know in the comments below!

Well, that’s pretty much it for me. I had a great time and got to meet some great people (including Keiren Smith) and had a pretty good time and if the rumours I’m hearing are true, I think we’re all lined up for a pretty great Fan Expo 2011.